Considering David Hudson has parted ways with Fandor and doesn't yet seem to have been picked up by another publication, how is everyone planning to follow the Cannes coverage this year? Any recommendations would be appreciated!

The screening of Wonderstruck received boos when Amazon's logo popped up, apparently because the anti-Netflix folks weren't aware their titles already premiere theatrically first... I mean, if you're already booing a movie you're probably not that smart anyways but still

Thanks! Jeanne Balibar is getting first strong actress talk for title role in Almaric's Barbara, though there's questions of how well the film translates outside of France for those unfamiliar with the real-life musician she portrays

The screening of Wonderstruck received boos when Amazon's logo popped up, apparently because the anti-Netflix folks weren't aware their titles already premiere theatrically first... I mean, if you're already booing a movie you're probably not that smart anyways but still

That's nothing. Okja got massive boos as a result of the Netflix logo popping up, and then even stronger boos when it started playing in the wrong aspect ratio. They stopped the movie after five minutes of that.

The screening of Wonderstruck received boos when Amazon's logo popped up, apparently because the anti-Netflix folks weren't aware their titles already premiere theatrically first... I mean, if you're already booing a movie you're probably not that smart anyways but still

That's nothing. Okja got massive boos as a result of the Netflix logo popping up, and then even stronger boos when it started playing in the wrong aspect ratio. They stopped the movie after five minutes of that.

Okja is the best reviewed film to premier thus far. Every review also emphasized how important it is to watch it on a big screen. Here's hoping Netflix releases it wide as well.

which features stellar programmers like Andrea Picard, Dennis Lim, Gustavo Beck, Roger Koza, Jaime Pena, Fernando Ganzo, blah blah. It's only scores, but quite a few of those also have dispatches. The critic.de grid is also of special interest to me this year because along with some of the names above, it's got Giovanni Marchini Camia (Fireflies)http://jury.critic.de/cannes/

And to my eyes, it seems that Grisebach is indeed the consensus favourite so far, with Varda & Garrel creeping up there.

And of course, David Hudson at the new Criterion Daily is a wondrous aggregate

For all of How to Talk to Girls at Parties' punk trappings it has a distinctly hippy heart. Fun, and its portrait of a alien society that is set on a path to destruction because it has divided itself and is unable to change is obviously timely.

Thank you Brood_Star! Western does indeed look to be the breakout of UCR so far!

Jupiter's Moon seems to be the only (in competition) film so far to take a consistent drubbing (waiting on more reviews of Redoubtable, although it has received its drubs from those already seemingly predisposed to disliking it), and, given its conceit, it's not hard to imagine. I can mostly leave Mundruczó and I imagine he squandered his UCR win goodwill, although you could also say Weerasethakul squandered his Palme win by screening in UCR.

Ruben Östlund, 2014's other big UCR winner, premiered to solid notices---really everything so far has received solid notices, with Zvyagintsev and Campillo being the only two to receive near-unanimous praise. Baumbach, Haneke, and Lanthimos are on deck and I'm hoping they bring it because there is a massive dry patch after them. My apologies to all Ozon stans, but this festival frontloaded its big-tickets, which should at least give space for Loznitsa to carve up a place in the post.

U.S. distribution thus far:

Netflix: The Meyerowitz Stories, OkjaAmazon: You Were Never Really Here, WonderstruckSPC: Happy End, LovelessMagnolia: Ismael's Ghosts, The SquareCohen: Rodin, L'Amant DoubleIFC: Let the Sunshine InA24: Good Time, How to Talk to Girls at Parties

Those who loved it loved it and it remains my most anticipated competition title, but the reaction seems about on par with the Zvyagintsev and less than the Campillo. The Campillo also has the advantage of (by all accounts) being a warm film---a quality that's abundant in Almodóvar and Sorrentino---and it seems the sort of film that a group of individuals can settle on. The Haneke was always going to leave a mark, but we still have a week for the jury to get bored, let their guards down, and settle on Ozon. Lanthimos and Loznitsa seem to be the main challengers left, unless Ramsay really has something special.

Maybe it's because he's never premiered outside North America, but I'm surprised at how well received the Baumbach is and I'm more convinced Haynes suffered from being paired with Zvyagintsev---the narrative around Wonderstruck seems to change daily. Perhaps Haynes's film suffered from not being Carol, I don't know, we're all just speculating here.

Oh man, I was in Cincinnati of all places (my experience was not unlike Anomalisa) as it was filming and I thought of abandoning my group to become an extra. The stakes of the opportunity to ensconce myself within its succulent sets for the sake of immortality were apparently not on my mind as I went about my business obtaining chili and other apparent Cincinnati-related activities. I'm nostalgic for Carol now; Haynes following it up with a YA adaptation wasn't the most thrilling news, but at least it marks the shortest gap between films in his career. There was a slam-dunk Palme winner scuppered, in the narrative of my mind, by an envious Xavier Dolan, resentful of the Carol-packaged reminder that he could never make a film this great and that he'd have to settle on ephemeral prizes, oblivious to the reality that no one remembers who won the Grand Prix in the Bille August years.

But remember Almodovar and Sorrentino, and Will Smith in the jury. Not the most restrained voices of modern cinema: I predict some of these less-restrained films will win big prices: Okja, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Square, The Beguiled and You Were Never Really Here...

I've understood that 120BPM isn't very well welcomed outside of the French critics (I suppose its subject doesn't help).The Lanthimos looks like it might get a secondary price (best director ? Grand Prix ?).And the Dumont seems like another UFO, in the steps of Ma Loute and P'tit Quinquin.

Dumont's Jeannette looks like fun! But not in competition though. I'm really looking forward to Ramsay's thriller. Could be something! And rumours tell that Akin's In the Fade is a big improvement from his previous film, it's supposed to be a very dark and tough movie.